Overpriced, overplayed `Big Bang' fizzles out

July 14, 2006|By Chris Jones, Tribune theater critic

From a basement space that variously has housed Siskel and Ebert movie screenings, an ice-cream parlor and broadcasts by WIBO radio, the owners and operators of the venerable Chicago Theatre have fashioned a terrific new 281-seat venue for off-Loop theater in the Loop. This goes well above and beyond the City of Chicago's reasonable expectations of stewardship of the venerable but long-troubled Chicago Theatre. Owner TheatreDreams has created a great enhancement to the Loop's cultural scene.

The much-loved "Shear Madness" will occupy this space beginning in the fall. Better to consider that the official opening and avoid "The Big Bang," the damp squid of a summer show that's not exactly serving as a grand ambassador for Philadelphia comedy.

So this piece of overwrought, overplayed, overpriced, over-obvious schlock is what passes for a comedic hit over there. Well, nice town, great cheesesteak and all. But whither theatrical subtlety in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania?

The conceit here is that a couple of guys -- played by the Matthew Broderick-styled Ben Dibble and Nathan Lane-styled Tony Braithwaite, as if they were doing an extended audition for a third-rate version of "The Producers" -- are putting together an $83.5-million musical about the history of the world. This is the backer's audition in a borrowed New York apartment -- the pair sing and act excerpts from their own show, finding costumes and props around the room.

In essence, you get a dozen or so silly comedy songs set at various obvious moments in history -- Henry VIII, Attila the Hun and so on. Imagine a Reduced Shakespeare Company show set to music, and you've got the basic idea.

This isn't exactly the freshest concept in the world, but the show's a clunker mostly because there are no dramatic stakes whatsoever and the comedic scenarios are so darn obvious. Nothing is ever counterintuitive. The book and lyrics, by Boyd Graham, are mostly silly. And, frankly, when a couple of young white guys spoof a clearly black Nefertiti and so-called "Asian Ladies," they're on dodgy ground. If they were superb comedians grounded in precision and vulnerability, the cross-racial impressions might work. But they lack truth. And thus they read as much less funny than they seem to think.

In fairness, I should note that many in the opening-night audience laughed a lot more than me (which was not hard to do). For sure, there are a couple of genuinely funny scenes -- including a droll ballad sung by Dibble to an Irish potato. At that moment, you can, at least, believe. Which is more than you can say for the rest of the show.